Scene & Heard
If you watched last week’s Late Late Show, you’ll know that Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries is to be the replacement for Sharon Corr on the judging panel of the Voice of Ireland. Meanwhile, Thom Yorke of Radiohead has renewed his assault on Spotify by calling the online music service “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse”. Is Annie Lennox, 58, showing her age or talking sense? The former Eurythmics singer has posted messages on her Facebook page, expressing her dismay at the spate of overtly sexualised performances and videos. She called for a system of rating to protect kids from exposure to such material. “If a performing artist has an audience of impressionable young fans and they want to present a soft-porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such, and be X-rated,” she wrote. “Boundaries need to be put in place, so that young kids aren’t barraged by market forces exploiting the ‘normalisation’ of explicit sex in underage entertainment.”
Kodaline (above) are probably the hottest Irish band at the moment and, as well as a show at the O2, the young Dubs have announced a gig at the INEC in Killarney on Mar 14. Jason Derulo cancelled an Irish appearance last year due to a neck injury, but he will give Irish fans a chance to see his poppy R&B at the O2 on Mar 14. We don’t see too many gigs in Cork selling out, so it’s great to see the tickets are long gone for Chic (Oct 26) at the Opera House, and Little Green Cars (Dec 14) at the Pavilion. Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at Cyprus Avenue tomorrow should also draw a hefty crowd, while the same venue hosts homegrown sibling chanteuses Heathers on Nov 27. Hip-hop hero DJ Jazzy Jeff is at Havana Brown’s tonight, while X-Factor winner James Arthur is at Cork Opera House on Feb 4.
